u/Dizzy-Credit-82

For those of you who wore (or are planning to wear) a half-up, half-down style with curls similar to the ones in the collage, how did your stylist achieve the curls?
I had my trial last week and showed a couple of these as reference photos. I loved the overall look, but I’m realizing I want the curls to be a bit tighter/more defined than what we got. My stylist used a 1¼-inch clamp curling iron. I’m wondering if switching to a curling wand (no clamp) would help create tighter curls, or if that’s just not realistic with long hair.
I don’t curl my hair often (I usually wear it straight or pulled back to avoid tangles), so I’m pretty new to this. My hair is long and I’m not sure how well it holds curl in general.
My stylist is fantastic and I will have another trial before the wedding in August, but I’d love to hear from other brides with long hair who went for this style. What worked for you? Any specific tools, techniques, or products that helped your curls stay defined and bouncy?

Thank you so much 🫶🏼🤍

It’s taken my hair about 5 years to get here and there’s 6 years between the first photo and the last two photos.

I bleached my hair religiously from grade 10 until I was 22. I grew so tired of losing length due to breakage. I finally said enough is enough and stopped bleaching my hair aside from some face framing pieces in the summer time. This is the longest my hair has been in my entire life 🥹

Saying goodbye to the bleach was the best decision I ever made. I always thought I looked better as a blonde, but as it turns out it was just washing out my features and keeping me from making any length progress.